


Ballads and Blues

by ArgetCross



Category: Cowboy Bebop
Genre: Gen, Major Last Episode Spoilers, basically a reaction piece to finishing the series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-11
Updated: 2014-08-11
Packaged: 2018-02-12 18:24:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2120100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgetCross/pseuds/ArgetCross
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For him, there was no future. For them, all they have is their future. </p><p>Or how the remains of the Bebop crew continue on.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ballads and Blues

**Author's Note:**

> Finished Cowboy Bebop this morning and I had a lot of words and images jumbled up in my head. So I tried to set down some of it in this drabble. Listened to Miles Davis' Ballads and Blues while writing, hence the title. Hope you enjoy.

They get the news from one of Jet's old police buddies, another one of those cops with badly cut facial hair that Faye can never remember the name of. It is a confirmation of what they already knew and Jet hangs up early. Faye fishes around in her sleeves for a pack of cigarettes and offers one to Jet, a paper cylinder bundled full of addiction and release. He takes it, expecting for her to make a quip about paying up, and when she does nothing but wait with an unlit cigarette dangling from her lips, he lights it for her. They take long drags, leaning back into the worn cushions of the Bebop’s sofas, and the smoke steadily dissipates into the room to fill it with a ghost that smelled of ash.

 

She leaves, again. Jet smokes more and remembers how Fad could never quite quit as he crushes a stub into the ash tray. Old habits were not so easily broken. Or perhaps more likely, the three legged race had run its course and they could not stay around each other without instinctively looking for the missing third.

Jet fires up the ship, getting ready to leave her for good, when he catches sight of a note left on the dashboard.

'Be back in two days.'

It isn't signed but Jet spends the next two evenings sitting in the Bebop, scrolling listlessly through bounty heads, and waiting. He hates the waiting the most and thinks too much about Alisa. The ashtray spills into Ein's old bowl and he fills that one too.

Faye comes back a day late, with the Red Tail beat up and Ed and Ein kicking under her arms.

"Let go, Faye Faye. Ed has to catch up with Ed's father person!"

"If he left you again to chase some stupid falling rock, it's good I'm bringing you back-ew, watch it, twerp!" Ed slobbers over Faye's hand and Ein barks as Faye drops Ed to the ground. She swears as she tries to wipe her hand on the back of Ed's shirt and after days of silence, it is too damn loud.

"Why'd you bring her back? If she wanted to leave to follow her father, that was her business." Jet works himself into froth but Faye brushes it off and Ed runs loops around him, blissfully unaware. "She's going to ask about Spike, you know-" Jet freezes because they had not spoken his name out loud and it echoes around the Bebop, slouching by the doorways and smelling of smoke.

"Oh, Edward knows." The cheer leaves Ed’s voice and she rests back on her haunches, hunching her shoulders and looking up at Faye and Jet with wide, bright eyes. "Ed kept one eye on Bebop from Earth. Bang bang, bye bye, space cowboy."

She forms her tiny brown hand into a finger pistol and shoots Ein straight between the eyes.

Jet takes Ed and Ein back to her father, who never noticed they disappeared in the first place. He gets another basket full of eggs for his trouble and Ed stuffs a few in her mouth when she thinks Jet is not looking.

"Take care of yourself out there, Ed. You too, Ein." he says.

"Whee, take care, gotta bear the wear!" Whatever sadness she had before had quickly passed and she does a handstand and somersaults, giggling the entire time. "Okay, bye bye, Bebop. Ed will see you someday soon."

               

When he gets back, they realize they have no more money left and, in desperation, he sets them to pursue some small fry for their next meal. Faye, resigned but hungry as well, makes only one sarcastic remark about the effort versus the reward. She reels them with minimal damage to the city, a miracle, and they have real beef in their bell peppers the next evening. Half way through their meal, Jet realizes he has made too much. For the first time in years there are leftovers to store in their empty fridge. They smoke in silence again and Jet isn’t sure if it’s because he’s fixed the ventilation or he is just imagining things but the wisps do not linger the lounge. Faye takes a long drag and puffs rings from her pursed lips.

“And where you’d learn to do that?”

“A Romani trick I picked up somewhere. I didn’t completely lie to you _gaujos_.” Faye leans back and blows a straight stream through the rings. “Not that he ever believed me. Closed off bastard to the end.”

“As if you were any better, the two of you making a mess, taking off all of a sudden, and then coming back as if nothing was wrong.” Jet says as the cigarette burns down to its butt. He only stubs it out once it nearly burns his lips.

“Everyone leaves one day. And that’s when you find you’re in too deep and you get hurt.” She gnaws down on her cigarette and in a bizarre moment, Jet wonders if she intended to swallow it. “How’s your leg?”

“…It’ll be fine. I’ll be able to run again soon. Just gotta keep working on it. It’s not like you to be concerned though. Getting soft?” Jet chuckles. Faye scowls and pushes herself off the sofa.

“Who can afford a sentiment like that? Got anything to drink?”

Jet remembers the hidden bottle of laojiu, a last gift he does not want to think about, and shakes his head. Faye stubs out her cigarette and goes to put on an old blues record to fill the silence. As they fly steadily through the blackness of space, a reedy sax serenades the halls of the Bebop. 


End file.
